An advocacy workshop was held on April 5, 2023, to lobby for the application of national and international laws to promote sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of conflict-affected and internally displaced women and girls. The workshop was attended by judiciary and health workers, judicial police officers, social workers, and civil society leaders.
The workshop focused on the following key issues:
-The importance of SRHR for conflict-affected and internally displaced women and girls;
-The challenges to accessing SRHR services in the Southwest Region;
-The role of the judiciary, health workers, and civil society in promoting SRHR.
The workshop participants discussed the need for a more coordinated and comprehensive approach to promoting SRHR in conflict-affected settings. They also identified a number of specific actions that could be taken to improve access to SRHR services, such as:
โ Raising awareness of SRHR rights among conflict- affected women and girls in the Southwest Region
-Training health workers on how to provide SRHR services in the Southwest Region
-Strengthening the legal framework for SRHR in the Southwest Region.
At the end of the workshop, a task force was created to monitor and promote networking amongst actors to ensure that survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), rape, and incest in particular have access to safe abortion care in public health facilities.
The workshop was a valuable opportunity for stakeholders to come together and discuss the challenges and opportunities for promoting SRHR in conflict-affected settings. The task force that was created at the end of the workshop will play an important role in monitoring and promoting networking amongst actors to ensure that survivors of SGBV have access to the health care they need.